I recently finished the Machine Learning course on Coursera that is recommended by MIRI's research guide for developing a practical familiarity with machine learning.
This post contains my thoughts about the course and tries to convey the updates my mental models went through as the eleven week course progressed.
I started the course with the perspective of an experienced, employed software developer with an engineering degree who had never focused on machine learning before, so I'm sure there's some background knowledge I take for granted, as well as some things I should have realized long before taking this course.
What is machine learning?
A definition introduced early in the lectures defines machine learning... (read 1713 more words →)
Somewhere, recently, I saw someone comment almost in passing that grad school shouldn't cost anything. I can't find the source now. Maybe someone can clarify if that's a serious claim? I've been under the impression for a while that grad school and academia would be an awfully expensive way to acquire the prerequisite knowledge for AI safety work.